So good evening. If you open
your Bibles with me to Psalm 150. Psalm 150, and as you're turning,
I'm sure all of you are aware by now that Charles Nybert passed
away this past weekend. The funeral service will be tomorrow
at 11.30 a.m. at Todd's Road Grace Church.
Visitation will be from 10 o'clock to 11.30 tomorrow morning. The
burial will be Thursday at 3.30 p.m. at Woodmere Memorial Park
in Huntington, West Virginia. So now you have all the information
that I have. Psalm 150. Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary.
Praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his
mighty acts. Praise him according to his excellent
greatness. Praise him with the sound of
the trumpet Praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him
with the timbrel and dance. Praise him with stringed instruments
and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals.
Praise him upon the high-sounding cymbals. Let everything that
hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. All right,
Shawn, you come lead us in some singing. If you would, please turn on
your red handle to song number 209, Grace Greater Than Our Sin. ["Grace Greater Than Our Sin"] Marvelous grace of our loving
Lord, Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt. Yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured,
There where the blood of the Lamb was spilled. Grace, grace, God's grace, Grace
that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace, God's grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin. Sin and despair, like
the sea waves cold, threaten the soul with infinite loss. Grace that is greater, yes, grace
untold, points to the refuge, the mighty cross. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse
within. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all
our sin. Dark is the stain that we cannot
hide. What can avail to wash it away? Look, there is flowing a crimson
tide. Wider than snow you may be. Grace, grace, God's grace, grace
that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace, God's grace,
grace that is greater than all our sins. Marvelous, infinite,
matchless grace, freely bestowed on all who believe. You that are longing to see His
face, will you this moment His grace receive? Grace, grace,
God's grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse
within. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all
our sin. Okay, just turn over. One page there to song 212, Nothing
But The Blood. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon, this I see, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing this my plea,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. O precious is the flow That makes
me white as snow, No other fount I know, Nothing but the blood
of Jesus. Nothing can for sin atone, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Not of good that I have done,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. If you wouldn't open your Bibles
with me, Psalm 146. Psalm 146. Praise ye the Lord. Praise the
Lord, O my soul. While I live, will I praise the
Lord. I will sing praises unto my God
while I have any being. Put not your trust in princes,
nor in the son of man in whom there is no help. His breath
goeth forth. He returneth to his earth. In
that very day, His thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God
of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God,
which made heaven and earth, the sea and all that therein
is, which keepeth truth forever, which executes judgment for the
oppressed, which giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth
the prisoners. The Lord openeth the eyes of
the blind. The Lord raiseth them that are bowed down. The Lord
loveth the righteous. The Lord preserveth the strangers.
He relieveth the fatherless and widow. But the way of the wicked,
he turneth upside down. The Lord shall reign forever,
even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the Lord. Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together. Our Father, how we desire tonight
that you would give us a heart that would truly praise the Lord.
How we thank you that you are God. You rule in every generation,
everlasting, eternal rule, ruling and reigning over your creation
for the purpose of accomplishing the redemption of your people,
to reveal your glory and saving sinners by your sovereign mercy. Father, how we thank you. How
we praise your matchless name for your purpose of salvation,
for the Savior, your Son, whom you sent to redeem your people
from their sins. How we thank you for the call
of the Holy Spirit to your gospel, that you've blessed your word
down through all these thousands of years, that always goes forth
and accomplishes your purpose. reaches your people, wherever
you have them, to call them to see the Lord Jesus Christ, bow
to Him, believe in Him, and rest in Him. Father, how we thank
you. How we praise your matchless
name. You are the only one who could accomplish such a purpose. Father, I pray that this evening
that you might enable us to see again the full and free redemption
that's in our Lord Jesus Christ and worship Him. in awe and in
wonder. Father, bless your word tonight.
We thank you for how you've blessed it over all these years. Father,
would you bless it again tonight for your glory and for the good
of your people. Father, we thank you for this
place that you've given to us where we can meet together in
peace and unity and have the Lord Jesus Christ be the object,
the object of our every meeting. Father, we pray you continue
to bless. Don't leave us alone now, but continue to bless your
word here for the sake of our community, for the sake of our
children and those that know not thee. And Father, especially
for the glory of thy great name, that you would keep this a place
where sinners can come and hear the Savior. And Father, while
we freely admit you've blessed us above all people, You blessed us so abundantly,
giving us everything in our Lord Jesus Christ. In this flesh,
we are still a poor and a needy people. And we pray that you
would give a special portion of your presence to those that
are in deep waters at this time. We pray for Aaron and Michelle
up there in Columbus, Father, that you would be pleased to
work in a mighty way to heal and strengthen Aaron and restore
him to us We pray for Barb as she's recovering, Father, that
you'd be with her, strengthen her, bring her back, that we
might worship as a family again soon. Others, Father, who need
you especially, we pray for the Nyberg family, that you'd comfort
their hearts, that there's no end of our need of thee. Father, meet the needs of your
people, we pray. We ask you to forgive us of our
many sins and for ever doubting, doubting your goodness and your
power and your mercy to your people. And all these things
we ask in that name which is above every name, the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. All right, I've titled the message
this evening, Five Reasons to Praise the Lord. Now for the
next few Wednesdays, we're gonna be looking at this phrase over
and over and over again, hallelujah. which is interpreted, praise
the Lord. These last five psalms, can you
believe we've come, there's just five left after all these years,
there's just five left. These last five psalms all begin
and end with the same words, praise ye the Lord. The Holy
Spirit is telling each of us repeatedly, praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Whatever
everybody else is doing, praise ye the Lord. And I know this
phrase, hallelujah, praise the Lord, it's become a religious
catchphrase in our day. It's sickening, I'll grant you
that. But I'm just determined not to
let them stop me from using a biblical phrase that the Lord tells us
to do to praise his matchless name. A believer absolutely must
praise the Lord and I'm just not gonna let false fleshly religion
stop me from doing it. almost exclusively, that I've
ever heard, false religion is all caught up in shouting hallelujah,
praise the Lord, always for fleshly, material things. And you'll notice
in this Psalm, David, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives us
five reasons to praise the Lord, and not one of them is fleshly.
Not one of them is material. They're spiritual reasons. Only
the soul can praise the Lord. David says, praise the Lord,
oh my soul. True praise can only come from
a new heart, a new soul, a new spirit which God gives his people
in the new birth and all of God's people will praise the Lord for
these five things. Number one is this, praise ye
the Lord, he's given me life. Verse two, David says, while
I live will I praise the Lord. I'll sing praises unto my God
while I have any being. Now, I do thank God that He's
given me physical life and breath. None of us could live and breathe
and move unless God gave us a life to do it. He's got to give it
to us. But you know, everything that has physical life and physical
breath does not praise the Lord. Did you notice this last verse
we read to open the service in Psalm 150? Let everything that
hath breath praise the Lord. Now, that ought to be. Everything
that hath breath ought to praise the Lord, but they don't. Only
the believer can. Only the believer can praise
the Lord. And God's people praise the Lord for this reason. God's
given them life. He's given them new life and
that life must praise the Lord. Just like physical life, it must
breathe. This spiritual life must praise
the Lord. God gives his people a new being. When a new man, a new nature
is born in us in the new birth, there's a new being that God
has created there. And it happened by the same miraculous
power by which God created the heavens and earth. He does it
just by speaking by his word. Look at verse six. David says,
which made heaven and earth, the sea and all that there in
is. I couldn't tell you how many
times scripture when identifies the God of heaven, the true and
living God identifies him as the creator, the one who spoke
everything into existence. And that's what God did. He just
spoke one day and created everything, just everything into existence.
And it takes that same power of the creator, the same power
that God used to create the earth and hang it in space and put
the moon going around it. And I mean, how's all this stuff
just spinning all around like gears, you know? God did that.
I mean, it's just amazing. But it takes that very same power
that hung the stars in space to speak life and give life into
the heart of a dead sinner. And that life is new spiritual
life that God created out of absolutely nothing. Now only
God can do that. That's why scripture identifies
him so often as the creator. God created this universe out
of nothing just by speaking. Everything was dark, void, darkness
covered the face of the deep. And God said, let there be light
and light appeared. God said, let the dry land appear,
and it appeared. God said, let the fishes appear,
and the animals appear, and the grass appear, and it did. And God saw it, that it was good.
Now God didn't, when he created this earth, this universe, he
didn't take things that already existed and mold them together
to make something else. He created out of nothing. There
was just a vast space of empty nothing. And by the power of
God's word, he spoke and suddenly things appeared from nothing,
just by the power of God's word. And when God gives life to his
people, he does the very same thing. He creates life in them.
He says, let there be life. And they may have heard the gospel
10,000 times. And when God speaks, they hear
it and they believe. Why do they believe now they
didn't believe yesterday? Because God spoke and he created life
and that life, that new man, believes God, because that's
the nature of the life. And God creates them out of nothing
now. This is important. He creates
that new man out of nothing, simply by the power of his word.
God doesn't take the flesh that already exists and mold it and
make it and stretch it and kind of like you do modeling clay,
make something new out of it, make it into a righteous person.
No, God leaves the flesh alone. The flesh is always going to
be flesh and nothing but flesh. God creates a new man out of
nothing. And that new man, that new nature,
when God gives it life, it must praise God. Just like you and
I physically must breathe. That new life that God gives
must praise God. In all life does that. The nature
of flesh praises, doesn't it? But what does it praise? It praises
the flesh that made it. That's the whole problem with
man's religion. The man-made religion praises
the flesh that made it, that created it, that worked up this
way of redemption, way of salvation, this way of righteousness. That's
where worshiping man's free will. I mean, you wonder, how can you
worship man's free will? Man is dead in sin. How can you
worship his free will? Because flesh worships the flesh
that made it. That's all it can do. It can
just praise the flesh that made it. Well, the new man, he praises
too. And he praises God who made it.
That's all the difference in the world. Only the new man born
of God can praise the Lord. Nobody else can. And David says,
I'll sing praises to my God while I have any being. Well, how long is that? How long
is that? It's eternal. Regenerated people,
they praise God now, on earth, they do. We don't do it like
we wish we could, we wish that we'd do it better, more purely,
but God's people praise the Lord on earth now. And you know what? We'll be doing the exact same
thing throughout all of eternity. Except there it'd be perfect.
Because that new man's gonna have being eternally. And for
eternity, he's gonna be praising the Lord. Now here, that new
man, he's forced to live in this fleshly body of sin, this body
of death. He has being, that new man, he
has being, but it's trapped in his body of flesh. And when we
finally lay this body of flesh in the ground, when it's finally
dead, when it finally just gives it up, that new man is gonna
be set free to go to glory. Now the flesh is gonna return
to the dust from whence it was made and that new man has still
got being. Being before God. And you know what he's doing?
I don't know everything that there is to know about heaven.
What is it that's going on in heaven now compared to after
Christ returns? I have no idea. But this much
I know, everybody there is worshiping the Lamb. Is praising the Lord.
That's what they're doing. God gave them being. He gave
them life. And that being, that life is
gonna praise God eternally. All right, number two, we praise
the Lord because he gave us life. And second, we praise the Lord
because he's the living savior. Verse three says, put not your
trust in princes, nor in the son of man in whom there is no
help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth. In
that very day, his thoughts perish. Now when Davis says, don't put
your trust in princes, he means the very best of men. When David
was writing this, I would imagine he's king, so he's talking by
himself, he's saying, don't trust in me now. Don't trust in princes,
don't trust in rich people that got power in this earth, and
the very best of men, don't put your trust in. Isaiah made that
mistake, didn't he? He didn't see the Lord until
King Uzziah died. He put Uzziah in a place he didn't belong.
Don't put your trust in any flesh, because even the best of flesh,
All it can ever be is dead, sinful flesh. That's all it can ever
be. Don't put your trust even in the best of preachers. You
know, us here in the Sovereign Grace community, you know, we
have respect for God's preachers. Respect them, love them for the
work's sake, but don't trust them now. Don't put your trust
in Him. You end up following a preacher instead of following
Christ. Be careful. Now, where will you be? Where
will you be? but he's dead and gone. If you're
following him, where will you be when you're dead and gone?
When he dies, at that moment, his ministry is over. And living
faith can't follow a dead preacher now. And you just apply that
to every other station of life, all the best flesh you can think
of, better not be putting any trust in it. Because you're just
putting your trust in a pile of dirt. David says there's no
help in the flesh. And that word help means salvation.
There's no salvation found in the son of Adam. Oh, he may have
a lot of good ideas. He may even have faith in Christ.
He may love Christ and know Christ and follow Christ and try to
tell folks about Christ. He might. But the very day that
he dies, that day, that very day, all of his thoughts, all
of his plans, all of his wishes die with him in that very day. And he returns, David says, to
his earth. What is his earth? His earth
is the dust of the earth that makes up his flesh. And when
he dies, this flesh is gonna go back to the dust that it was
made from. It's just gonna decay back to dust. Now that's the
end of all flesh. So it ought to be obvious to
us, no mere man can save you. No mere man can make you more
savable. The best he can do is point you
to Christ, and that's the best he can do. But when he dies,
he's lost all of his ability to do anything, to do anything,
even to point you to Christ. So don't look to a man to help
you. He's got nothing to give. He just got nothing to give.
All he is is sinful flesh. But, but there is salvation in
Christ, the God man. Christ died for the sin of his
people. But here's the difference between
Christ and every other bit of flesh. He didn't stay dead. He
rose again. You know why he rose again? He died for the sin of his people.
He rose again because the sin of his people that had been charged
to him had been put away, been washed away under his precious
blood. His blood paid the debt for every one of those sins.
That enormous mountain of black sin, the blood of one man, the
sacrifice of one man, the perfect God man, put it all away. He died for sin, but he couldn't
stay dead because sin's gone. And that's the good news of the
gospel. There would be no good news of the gospel if Christ
did not die and rise again, and rise again. And that's what's
pictured in believers baptism. You know, we rejoice together
when one of our brothers or sisters confesses Christ in believers
baptism. It's always a very, very special time. We're so thankful. But you know, we'd have a hard
time rejoicing if when I was baptizing someone, I baptized
them and I held them down under the water till they drowned.
We rejoice, son. You'd have a hard time rejoicing
if I held Janie down till she drowned. I mean, that's not very
pleasant. That's not what happened. When
we baptize a person, we put them under the water to picture the
death of Christ. He died. He was buried. He truly
died for sin. But we bring him up out of the
water again. We bring up all those waters of baptism to picture
Christ rising from the dead. When he died, I died in him.
He died for my sin. When he died, I died in him.
When he was buried, I was buried in him. And praise the Lord. When he rose again, I rose in
him. To newness of life. The resurrection of Christ is
the evidence, his sacrifice atoned for all the sin of his people.
And God's people, every last one of them can't help but rejoice
in that. Praise ye the Lord. Here's another
difference between the death of our Savior and the death of
a mere man. All of a man's ideas, all of
his plans, everything he's got purposed, all of that ends the
very moment he dies. Oh, his children may try to carry
it on for a while, but it's never the same, is it? Never the same.
Well, here's the difference. All of God's covenant of grace,
God's purpose of redemption, It didn't stop. It was fulfilled
when Christ died. It was fulfilled. It was ratified
when Christ died. See, there's no help. There's
no salvation in man, but there's help in Christ. There's salvation
in Christ. Verse five says, happy is he
that hath the God of Jacob for his help. Happy is the man that
hath the God of Jacob as his savior. Oh, it makes us happy,
happy to trust Christ, happy to trust our salvation to him.
They're happy to have a hope in Him. And you know, if you
hope in a man, you hope he's gonna do what you want. You hope
he's gonna be able to be a help to you. You hope he's gonna do
something right. You hope he's not gonna mess it up in the end.
You hope, but you don't know. I mean, at best it's a 50-50
proposition. Hope in Christ is an expectation
because the work's done. If you trust Christ, it's not
presumption to expect eternal life. It's not presumption. Our
hope is in him. It's an expectation. He'll do
what he said to do. He saved his people from their
sins. Now you trust him, trust him. And if you do, God gives
you the faith to trust him. You'll praise his matchless name.
Praise ye the Lord. All right, number three, praise
ye the Lord because he's the savior of sinners. Verse five,
happy is he that the God of Jacob for his help. whose hope is in
the Lord, his God. Now God is the God of Jacob.
Just like the scripture identifying God as the creator. I don't know
how many times scripture identifies God as the God of Jacob. God is the savior of Jacob. And I'll tell you why scripture
refers to that over and over and over again. It's trying to
drive this one point home to you and me. God is the savior
of the worst sinners that there are. There's not one sinner anywhere,
anytime, who's such a great sinner, the blood of Christ can't atone
for their sin. God is the savior of the worst of sinners. And
that's who Jacob represents. Jacob, oh my, he was notorious
like me. Notorious in his business dealings. He cheated his own brother. His
own brother, he cheated him. He tricked his own father out
of the birthright. I mean, his own daddy, I mean,
Oh boy. And throughout his life, Jacob,
you know, he had to run off because he deceived his father and stole
his brother's birthright. His brother was going to kill
him. He had to run off. He ends up getting married, become
a head of the family. And poor old Jacob made every
mistake in the book as a head of his family. I mean, it's just
a miracle of God's grace that family survived because it certainly
went on account of Jacob's leadership. All through his life, Jacob never
once that I can think of did anything right the first time.
He always did it wrong the first time and Lord had to correct
him or turn him around, turn it into something. Jacob just
messed everything up. You and I would not want Jacob
as a neighbor. We wouldn't. Halfway afraid having him as
a son, he's going to deceive you and steal the birthright from
your family, you know. Yet God loved Jacob. God loved Jacob. God set his
electing love on that scoundrel, Jacob. And he saved Jacob, even
though Jacob was the most unlikely candidate of God's grace. Between
them two brothers, if you're just gonna look at those two
brothers, Jacob and Esau, Esau was by far, be the choice of
everybody here. But God loved Jacob. God saved
Jacob. And that's what he always does.
God always chooses the most unlikely. for him to say, for him to make
an object of his mercy. Jacob was born second. He had
no claim to the birthright. Jacob was a whiny mama's boy. He could have made the best of
it. He still would have been a wealthy man. He still would
have lived a very good life for that time. But he didn't have
the birthright. He just was a whiny mama's boy.
He just whined about it all the time, just whining. Jacob was
a chief. Nobody wanted to be his friend.
You're just never going to come out, you know, on a business
dealing with Jacob. You can't trust him. Jacob's
unstable as water. But God loved Jacob. God saved
Jacob. God called Jacob. God himself
came down and wrestled with Jacob and revealed himself to Jacob. And at the end, when the story's
told, Jacob's an old man and he's ready to die. You know what
he said? God shepherded me my whole life
long. He guided me, he fed me, he kept me my whole life long. God fulfilled his covenant promise
to Abraham, to Isaac, and even to Jacob. You know why? Because God's faithful. The God
of Jacob is faithful. Now why is that story given to
us in scripture? Because God saves Jacob's. Everybody,
God saves, sees themselves in Jacob. Yeah, I can identify with
Jacob. You know, we all have the nature
of Jacob. Spiritually speaking, we're no
count. We're good for nothing. We have
absolutely no claim on the birthright. We have no claim on God. We have
no claim on God's mercy, on God's grace. You know, we sit here
We give, at the very minimum, everybody here, at the very minimum,
everybody here gives mental assent, this gospel's true. It's the
only thing the word of God can be saying. Nothing else, you
just know this, all this other junk that passes for religion
out there, you just see through it, you know that's not true.
That don't make us have any claim on God's mercy. No, God will
be merciful to whom he will be merciful. God saves Jacobs, no
count, good for nothing, cheats. And that's who we are, we're
cheats. By nature, we're supplanters. We're born trying to cheat God
out of the birthright. We're born trying to cheat Christ
out of his glory by saving ourselves or at least helping to save ourselves.
We're trying to steal his glory. We're cheats. That's our nature.
Instead of trusting Christ, instead of resting in him, we try to
steal God's glory. in doing something to help our
salvation, to contribute to it in some way. And all of our efforts
to establish our own righteousness, to make ourselves more savable,
to, you know, we make a profession, now we think we gotta keep ourselves
safe, that don't work. It just makes us miserable. This
miserable failure, spiritually speaking, that's the only thing
you can say about us. We just, we never do anything right the
first time. Never! Oh, how happy are we? God's the
God of Jacob. God saves Jacob. And not only
did God spare Jacob, God saves Jacob in truth. Verse six, which
made the heaven, the earth, the sea and all that therein is,
which keepeth truth forever. God's the God of Jacob. God's
going to save Jacob, but God's going to save him in truth because
everything God does must be true. and right because God's true
and right. God is holy. He can't do something
wrong. God can't accept us Jacobs as
we are in ourselves. He can't accept us the way we
are in Adam and in our sin. So God saves his people in truth
by God doing all the work. God truly puts away the sin of
his people. God truly pays for the sin of
his people with his own precious blood. He truly takes the sin
of His people off of them and charges it to His Son on Calvary's
tree. Put His Son to death for it.
And by that death, He put away that sin. He did that truly.
That is done in true justice. And God truly creates in His
people a new nature. And He changes their name. And
this is not just a paper transaction. I'm going to change my name from
Jacob to Israel. God said your name is changed
from Jacob to Israel. No longer will you be called
cheap and supplanter, but you're Israel, a prince with God, because
that's your nature. That's your nature. And Jacob,
for the rest of his life, toted around those two natures, didn't
he? So does every believer. God makes all of his people to
be the Israel of God, spiritual Israel. He joins us to Christ,
joins us to Christ, and calls his people by the precious name
of His Son. This is the name wherewith she
shall be called, Jehovah Sikinu, the Lord our righteousness. Woo! Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
He did that in truth. That new man is born in truth. That new man lives in truth.
Just as truly as the old man is dead in sin. just as truly. And I tell you, that makes God's
people happy. Oh, happy that God is the God
of Jacob. God saves sinners. We don't have
to do anything to make ourselves better before we come to God
and beg for mercy. Matter of fact, you better not
try to do that at all. Come to God as you are in all of your
sin, in all of your filth, all of your corruption and all of
your shame, come to God bearing all of it because God saves sinners
from all their sin. Now come to, he's the God of
Jacob. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I ain't heard any better news
than that all day. If you, all right, here's the fourth thing.
Praise ye the Lord because there is full free salvation in Christ. Now those are words that we use
a lot, full salvation. I'll tell you what that means,
full salvation. It means that in every way you
can think of to describe our loss of state, every way you
can think of to describe how it is that we're dead in sin,
how we're separated from God, every way you can think of to
describe our sin, in every single way, Christ is the answer to
it. David gives us just a few examples
here. God saves the oppressed. He says in verse seven, which
execute judgment for the oppressed. Now the oppressed live under
the boot of the oppressor. The oppressor is just keeping
them down, pressing them down all the time. And that's how
God's elect come into this world, oppressed by sin. We're pressed
down by the burden of sin, pressed down, just oppressed by our corruption
and our death and just ugh. And Christ comes, And he sets
his people free from that oppression by taking their sin for him.
Everything that was pressing them down, oppressing them, he
takes it away. He took their sin and his own
body on the tree and put it away by the sacrifice of himself.
So he executes judgment for the oppressed by satisfying justice
for them. He died as their substitute.
He took their sin. He died as their substitute to
pay for it. This thing's done injustice. The oppressed are
free. God's elect are oppressed by the burden that the law puts
on them. The burden puts a law upon us
we cannot carry. Peter asked them one day, he
said, what do you want to put these Gentiles under the law for, which neither
we nor our fathers could bear? We couldn't bear up under it,
what do you want to put them under it for? Have some pity on these
folks, you know? God's people are oppressed by
the burden of law. We can't keep it. Well, Christ
executes judgment for them. Sets them free from that oppression.
He came in our flesh as our representative and obeyed the law for us, as
our representative, and set us free from it. God's elect are
oppressed by Satan. Satan accuses them of their sin. He lies to them, trying to deceive
them, and we're oppressed. But Christ executes judgment
for them. He went to Calvary's tree. He
allowed Satan to bruise his heel, but when he did, he crushed his
head. He took away his power. At Calvary, Christ took away
Satan's power to accuse God's people of sin anymore because
Christ paid for it. He showed himself as the way,
the truth, and the life. They can't be deceived anymore.
If you're looking to Christ, you cannot be deceived. Christ
took Satan's power away to do that. They're free from all who
would oppress them. Then God saves or He fills the
hungry. Verse seven in the middle of
the verse there says, which giveth food to the hungry. Now God's
elect are born hungry, spiritually hungry. You know why we're spiritually
hungry? It's because we're empty. We're
empty of righteousness. We're empty of all goodness and
we're starving to death. Well, Christ is the great provider. And you know how Christ provides
for his people? You know how he feeds his people? He provides
himself. The great provider provides himself
as the bread of life, as the water of life. He gives himself
to his people and by faith, they eat his flesh and they drink
his blood and they never hunger. They never thirst again because
he fills them with himself. Then God saves or he frees the
prisoner. The end of verse seven says,
the Lord looseth the prisoners. He looses the slaves. Christ
is the great emancipator. Now I will freely admit to you,
I am a great big fan of President Lincoln. And so every time I
read about slaves and prisoners being loosed in scripture, I
tend to think about him. I think Lincoln is our greatest
president. He saved the union when it seemed
like nobody else was willing to do it, and he set the slaves
free. Now this land, this country,
could never be The land of the free and the home of the brave,
as long as people, were owned as slaves. And Lincoln set them
free. And you think what a horrible,
horrible, horrible life it would be to be a slave. And have somebody
come tell you, this Mr. Lincoln, just said, you're free. I go, you're free. Oh, those
former slaves, they loved President Lincoln for setting them free.
They called him the great emancipator. Millions maybe, I don't know
how many were set free. You just think of that, oh. But
now listen, praise ye the Lord. Our savior is truly the great
emancipator. Freedom in Christ is free, it's
free. Poor old President Lincoln gave
the slaves freedom. But seems like he didn't give
much, did he? He wasn't able to really enforce
his will. Their freedom was severely restricted
by Jim Crow laws and racial prejudice and the KKK and this whole system
set up to keep them basically, you know, oppressed under their
boot. But when Christ the Son comes
to his people, they're in the prison house. He sets them free. He pays the debt. They must go
free. And when the Son will make you
free, you're free indeed. You're free from fear of death. You're free from fear of condemnation.
You're free from the condemnation of sin. You're free. You're free. Now, what are you
going to do with that freedom? God's law can't restrict that
freedom. You're free from the law. There's
no prejudice there stopping you from enjoying your freedom. Christ
removed that partition, that middle wall that stood between
the Jew and the Greek and saved them all by His blood and made
them all one. Now you're free. Nothing can
hinder that freedom. Now what are you going to do
with it? You know what God's people are going to do with it?
Hallelujah. Praise you Lord. He set me free. He set me free by taking my place. Paying the full price required
for my eternal freedom. Hallelujah. Then God saves the
blind by giving them sight. Verse eight says, the Lord openeth
the eyes of the blind. Now God's elect are born, just
like everybody else in the flesh, they're born blind, they can't
see. They cannot see Christ. They can't understand. They can't
understand how God saves sinners. They hear about faith in Christ,
they hear you say to trust Christ, but they don't understand how.
They don't understand, how do I rely on Christ? How do I trust
Christ? The preacher tells them every
service, look to Christ, and they say, I don't know how. I
don't know what you're talking about. I don't know how. I don't
understand. And then Christ comes. So you're not gonna, that's a
miserable, miserable state, isn't it? But God's not gonna leave
his people there. Christ is gonna come to them.
And he opens their eyes so they see. And you know what they see? They see Christ. When they see
Him, they say, oh, now I see. Now I understand. Now I believe. I don't understand everything
there is to know, but I see the Savior. And Sean, that's all
I need to see. He's all I need to see. When
we see Him, we trust Him. He is the only hope there is
for sinners. Praise the Lord. He opens the
eyes of His people so they see Him. Then the Lord saves those
that are bowed down. Verse 8 says, the Lord raiseth
them that are bowed down. Now God's elect, they're bowed
down, aren't they? They're bowed down because they're crushed,
bruised, and dead in the fall. They're bowed down. They're bowed
down under the burden of their sin, a burden they cannot carry. And Christ comes and He takes
their burden away. He puts that burden all away
under his precious blood. And that beggar is bowed down
there on the dunghill. The Savior comes where they're
at. He reaches down there on the
dunghill and he lifts them up. He lifts them up out of that
dunghill and he sets them among princes. He sets them at the
king's table, eating the king's fare in the king's palace. And
they're sitting there wearing the fine robes of righteousness
that belong to the king, what the king made for them. Praise
the Lord. What a change from the dunghill
to the palace. Then the Lord saves people that
he loves. God loves his people. The end
of verse eight says, the Lord loveth the righteous. Now God's
elect are born. unrighteous. They're corrupted,
they're defiled by sin. Like I said a little while ago,
God cannot and he will not accept us in that sinful, unrighteous
state. So Christ comes and he makes
his people to be what God loves. He makes them righteous. The
Lord, our righteousness. He makes his people to be the
very righteousness of God's son. Makes them to be what God loves.
He makes His sinful people to be one with Him so we are what
He is, righteous, beloved of the Father. That God Almighty would and could
do something like that for sinners like you and me ought to make
us shout, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Then the Lord
saves strangers. Verse nine says, the Lord preserveth
the strangers, he relieveth the fatherless and the widow. Now
God gave the tabernacle, he gave the law, the ceremonies and the
priesthood, he gave the prophets, he gave his word, all to Israel,
all to the Jews. And to the Jews, Gentiles were
strangers, they're strangers, they're foreigners, they're foreigners
to all of those pictures of the covenant. Now a Gentile might
convert, they might convert, But to the Jews, they're still
strangers. They're still strangers. The
best they could be was a second class citizen. The Gentiles were
so far out there, this is what the Jews really thought. Even
though God showed them several examples in the Old Testament
scriptures of him saving the Gentiles, the Jews really thought
the Gentiles are so far out there, God was never gonna save any
of them. They're too far out there, they're too far gone,
they're too wicked, I'm better than you. So God's gonna save
Jews, but he's not gonna save the Gentiles. Well, praise the
Lord. God said otherwise. Look at Ephesians
chapter two. God saves strangers. He saves
the strangest of sinners. Ephesians chapter two. Verse 11. Wherefore, remember, that ye
being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision
by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that
at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ
Jesus, see that's what we were in the flesh, what are you in
Christ? Now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off,
are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace,
who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of
partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity,
even the law of commandments contained in the ordinances.
For to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace. And he might reconcile both unto
God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby,
and came and preached peace to you, which were far off, to you
strangers and to them that were nigh, for through him we both
have access by one spirit unto the Father. Now therefore, you
know more strangers than foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints, and of the household of God. You're not a stranger
anymore, you belong in a household of God, and are built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone in whom all the building fitly framed
together groweth and into a holy temple in the Lord. In whom ye
also, you strangers, you also are built together for an habitation
of God through the Spirit. Oh, God saves strangers, doesn't
he? The strangest of sinners. And
then look back in our text. We see here that God is just. He says in verse nine, the Lord
preserved the strangers, he relieved the fatherless and the widow,
But the way of the wicked, he turneth upside down. And you
know, this refers to the wicked. Someday in judgment, the wicked
think they're on top of the world. It's going to get turned upside
down. But you know, God does this for his people in this life. They're born wicked. He turns
them upside down. He takes our old way, the way
of the flesh, and turns it upside down and puts us in a new way.
The Lord Jesus Christ, Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, He
didn't leave me to myself. He turned my way upside down.
He turned everything upside down and revealed Christ to me. All
right, here's the fifth thing. Praise ye the Lord, because He's
the sovereign Savior. Verse 10. The Lord shall reign
forever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise
ye the Lord. Christ reigns forever and ever.
unto all generations. You know why he reigns to all
generations? Because God has a people from all generations.
And Christ the Savior reigns over everything. God's put everything
into the hand of his son. His son reigns over everything.
It's all at his disposal. And he reigns over it all to
ensure the salvation of the people that the father gave him to save.
Those people for whom he died. He reigns. to ensure their salvation,
to ensure that it's not gonna be up to them. Maybe they'll
make the wrong choice, you know, and they won't choose Christ.
No, he doesn't leave it up to them. He sovereignly reigns over that.
He gives them a new, oh, they'll all choose Christ, but he, you
know why? He gives them a new want to. He changes their nature. He gives them a new, not change
their nature, he gives them a new nature. He rules to ensure that
happens to all of his people, no matter where they're found.
No matter where they're found in God's creation, Christ reigns
there to guarantee the salvation of God's people. Praise the Lord. Aren't you thankful our God reigns?
Aren't you thankful he's sovereign in salvation? That's the only
way the salvation of God's elect can be sure. Is that God purposed
it. God purchased it. God applied
it and God reigns to ensure it happens. Praise the Lord, our
God reigns. All right. Can we say praise
the Lord? I hope so. I don't want us all jumping around
shouting, and I'd probably hurt myself if I tried that, but in
the heart, in the soul, praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.
All right, let's bow together. Our Father, we say with the psalmist
of old, praise the Lord. How we thank you for your goodness,
your mercy, your grace, your purpose of salvation to your
people. how thankful we are, how we praise your matchless
name, that all the work is up to you, that you've done all
of the work, that none of it depends upon the creature. It
all depends upon God, our Savior, and you cannot fail. Father,
how we praise you. Not like we want to, not like
we will someday, But from the heart, we say praise the Lord. Oh, thank you for your mercy
and your goodness and your grace to your people. It's in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, for his glory, his sake we pray. Amen. Now, after Sean leads us
in singing a hymn, if some of you men would set us up some
tables, the Lord willing, the Nyberg family is going to come
here for a meal after the burial tomorrow. So we'll need two tables
out there, I think about four. up here, chairs around them and
so forth, so they'll have a comfortable place to sit and eat together,
alright? Alright, Sean? If you would, please turn to
song number 393, Take My Life and Let It Be. And stand as we Take my life and let it be consecrated,
Lord, to Thee. Take my hands and let them move
at the impulse of Thy love, at the impulse of Thy love. Take my feet and let them be
swift and beautiful for thee. Take my voice and let me sing. Always only for my King. Always only for my King. Take my lips and let them be
filled with messages for thee. Take my silver and my gold, not
a mite would I withhold, not a mite would I withhold. Take my love, my God, I pour
at thy feet its treasure store.